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posted @ 8/28/2008 01:00:00 PM by Pandalicious

His story.... over mine... his story will be his storyAnd my story is a waste of time (aaaah-aah-aah) (TLC reference)

Welcome to once again another Throwback Thursday.I'm your host Pandalicious coming to you live [well as live as a post is] from the ever so popular ESHLAND. This Thursday however, I thought I'd slow things down and give much love and much respect to the ladies. You see women are...in two words: simply awesome. All the great men who were responsible for our history,culture and addictions had great women right behind them,,most of which proclaiming that they were fools. However in the gaming world there was one pair that this wasn't so. There is one pair that to this day were seen as equals in my mind. This pair is...you guessed it. Mr. and Ms. Pac-man.

Even though, I as a gamer recognize this pair as equals they were not brought into existence at the same time. Sadly, though not entirely sad, Pac-Man was the first of the pair to be created. As much as I'd like to say that Pac-man was an american creation I would be a bold faced liar. Japan brought him into the world, along with some of my other obviously favorite things. [Cough Anime Cough Cough]. Anyway he was developed my Namco, but brought over here to the U.S by Midway. You might recognize Midway through some other famous titles such as: Mortal Kombat [Deadly Alliance, Deception, Shaolin Monks and Armageddon] Pac-man via Midway hit the U.S in 1980. [So for age reference, Ninjasistah was a little over a year old, and I was still in the pre development stages. Barely on the radar, if you catch my drift ~^]

Needless to say droves and droves of a budding gamer nation were sent in crazes of joy upon playing Pac-man. It was an overwhelming sensation and widely addictive, kind of like any drug you can imagine minus the drooling, hallucinations and uncontrolled bouts of gambling or raging libidos. Thusly Pac-man was flagged as a gamer icon, and a landmark in gaming history...

As much as I like to boast about Pac-Man, I cannot idly sit by and just be content with talking about the male aspect of things. I cannot walk away without bringing a much needed guest to the forefront and give her a voice. She is known as Ms.Pac-man.

Too much of my surprise, the origin of Ms.P did not stem from the same place as her male counter part, which for this senario is idle. So sorry pervs of the world , there is no gamer incest here. Originally rumors were leaked that Ms.P ( game formerly known as Crazy Otto) was a bootlegged copy of Pac-man made by the programers over at the General Computer Coporation. They were highly impressed with what they did, and rushed themselves over to Midway. They liked what they saw. After fighting all the red tape, and buying the necessary sprites to the game. She was renamed and released here in the U.S. This all went down in 1981. Midway had grown fed up with waiting for Namco to release Super Pac-man. Not only did the release of Ms.Pac-Man make Midway happy, but at the time she was also a prominent answer to a question that the gaming community still addresses today: How in the world do we appeal to the female gamer fanbase?!

Like I mentioned previously, the Pac-man game was blood success! It was seen in arcades all over the place so needless to say the game mechanics are simple to the average gamer today. However, taking a seasoned gamer from today and placing them back into primitive forms of gaming is indeed interesting to observe.

Take for instance myself. Add me to say either the Pac-man or Ms.Pac Man game via the technology of the XBOX360. [God do I love ports when done right!] Timing and precision are key as they were for these two games back in the 80's. I came to find that my timing was completely off which once again made the game physically challenging. Since the game's premise was already known. I found my hands to be stressing out faster with each passing level and those ghosts once again pose a serious threat to my existence. ...

This classic will always bring warmth to my gamer soul. If not for the quality hours I spent playing it...then for the personal reason of thriving in it while Ninja did not. [This is why Siblings were made, and why gaming displays the strengths and weaknesses of those siblings.]However, if it wasn't for either of those reasons that it was for the Panda of the 80's...all six years I spent in them.... for desiring to be yellow and round and wanting everyone to play with me...for wanting to rock a styling bow and for [unbeknowst to me at the time...gave me hope that other girls wanted to do the exact same thing]